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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28854186">Latte Digits</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/leveloneandup/pseuds/leveloneandup'>leveloneandup</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Women's Soccer RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops &amp; Cafés, F/F, latte art, numbers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:42:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,076</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28854186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/leveloneandup/pseuds/leveloneandup</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There are seven digits in Christen’s number. Tobin makes her think about each and every one of them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tobin Heath/Christen Press</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>183</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Latte Digits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Tobin Twosday!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Christen looks up from her book as the door opens and Tobin walks in. Tobin gives her a nod and a smile as she walks by and sits in her usual spot in the corner, by the window. She takes out her sketchbook and pencil and starts to look out the window for something to sketch today.</p><p>Christen watches Tobin situate herself before she turns around and starts to prepare Tobin’s latte. </p><p>Out of the corner of her eye, Tobin sees that Christen has turned around so it’s safe to look back at the barista and watch her work as she starts to prepare the latte that she orders everyday. </p><p>Well now, it’s just unspoken that it’s her order. She comes here everyday at the same time to just sit and sketch for fifteen minutes before her stretch of classes. If she says that she comes to this particular coffee shop when there are three others on her way here that are much closer to campus just because of the lattes, she’s definitely lying. She looks back towards the window once she recognizes that Christen is pouring the milk to form a perfectly shaped leaf on the top of her latte, which means she is about to bring over her drink.</p><p>It’s nice in the mornings just right after the rush of those coming in on their way to work or to drop their kids off at school. It’s a little far from campus which means there aren’t as many college students who come in, so by the time nine-thirty rolls around, it’s calm. Most of the time, it’s just a couple of people so Christen will opt to serve the customers at their tables instead of having them come pick it up, just for some movement on slow mornings. </p><p>Last semester, Christen only worked the morning shifts three times a week. When Tobin came in, they would have friendly exchanges over the counter until one day, Christen told Tobin to just go and sit down and she would bring her latte over to her. </p><p>This is when Christen got her first glimpse of Tobin’s art. Normally, Christen would hand Tobin her latte at the counter and Tobin would go to her table and just start sketching until she eventually got up about fifteen minutes later and left with a quick wave to Christen. There was really no reason for Christen to approach Tobin any time in between and their conversations were limited to the time that Tobin was at the counter.</p><p>When she first delivered Tobin’s coffee to her table, she caught a glimpse of her sketchbook. It was of a man on his phone jammed between his ear and shoulder, trying to hold his briefcase in one hand that was also trying to open his car door, while the other hand was fixing his tie. Obviously he was in a hurry. Tobin sees Christen sneaking a look at her drawing and just simply nods her head towards the blue house across the street with an empty driveway, “You just missed him.” </p><p>And that’s how it started. Tobin would come in, Christen would prepare her latte. When Christen came over, they would talk about whatever scene Tobin was sketching or whatever abstract art Tobin was creating that day.</p><p>Sometimes they would talk about things other than what was in Tobin’s sketchbook. Tobin learned that Christen is a student at the university as well, majoring in business. Christen learns that Tobin is an architecture major, but she likes to take time to just enjoy creating art that isn’t just building structures. </p><p>This semester, Christen signed up for classes that allowed her to take the morning shift every day and Tobin came in every day. And honestly, neither of them can figure out if the other is just being friendly or not, so neither of them have ever pushed it.</p><p>But today, Christen decided to try something different. She was putting the finishing touches on the latte, which took her longer than usual. She looks at it one last time, trying to get over her nerves. </p><p>She realizes that she’s been staring at the finished latte for a full minute now and that she’s made Tobin wait long enough. She shakes out her hands and grabs the cup and plate and finally pushes herself to head over to Tobin’s table before she talks herself out of this like she did the last time, when she had to remake the whole drink. </p><p>As she sets it down, Tobin looks at the cup, expecting the usual milky leaf design but instead sees something else. Christen watches as Tobin studies it, looks up questioningly at Christen before going back to look at it. </p><p>
  <em> Words. Of course, she doesn’t get it. You have to use words, Christen. </em>
</p><p>Christen is just about to open her mouth to speak when Tobin beats her to it.</p><p>A smile appears on Tobin’s face as she exclaims, “Oh, I get it.” A smile tugs at the corner of Christen’s mouth as she waits for Tobin’s explanation, hoping that Tobin truly understands what it means. </p><p>Tobin brings up her hand showing two peace signs and taps them across each other in the air, “Hashtag coffee, right? I get it. Because everyone is always Instagramming their coffee nowadays,” Tobin chuckles, “How meta.”</p><p>Christen hums in agreement, a little defeated and decides to use her words, “Actually, I was wondering,” Christen says slowly as Tobin picks up her coffee, distracted by lips jutted out to blow softly at the steam, “If I could get …” and when Tobin stops what she’s doing and looks up at her, they lock eyes and Christen stares into the brown eyes looking up at her. </p><p>After a beat, Tobin encourages her to finish her sentence, “If you could get…?”</p><p>Christen shakes out of her thoughts and recovers, “If I could get you one of our muffins!” Tobin jumps a little, startled at Christen’s sudden outburst. “It’s on the house. Because I know I kind of took a while today with your latte.”</p><p>Tobin puts her cup down and starts to protest as Christen walks away, “Oh no, it’s fine, I didn’t even no—” and by this time, Christen is well out of earshot, “—tice.”</p><p>Tobin just laughs to herself and shakes her head as she looks at the latte again. Her eyes go to the uncharacteristically blank page of her sketchbook. She had been so distracted that she hadn’t even started sketching yet. She picks up her pencil and starts moving her wrist around as she finally found some inspiration this morning.</p>
<hr/><p>The next day, Christen has a plan. A better plan. After Ali had made fun of her for basically going back on her plan to ask for Tobin’s number twice now, Christen figures she should just give Tobin her number. This scares her a little but it’s okay. Because Christen’s plan was to give Tobin her number slowly. By the end of the week, if Tobin doesn’t notice, then it’ll be a sign that maybe it’s not meant to be. Ali is still in favor of just slipping Tobin her number, but Christen is hesitant, because if she’s wrong, she really doesn’t want to ruin her mornings with Tobin, even if they only talk for five minutes each day. She’d rather have that than make it awkward, or worse, scare her away. </p><p>As Christen walks towards Tobin with her latte, she gently places it down and Tobin is met with another surprise. </p><p>Tobin smirks, “Seven.” She looks up at Christen, “That’s my favorite number.”</p><p>Christen smiles shyly and tucks that information away for later, “Just. Trying something new. Enjoy.”</p><p>“Thanks, I always do.”</p><p>They continue to look at each other until someone walks in and to the counter.</p><p>Christen turns her head quickly to the counter and back to Tobin and points her thumb towards the counter while taking a step backwards, “I better…”</p><p>Tobin looks at the customer and then back to Christen, “Yeah. Go ahead. Thanks for the seven.”</p><p>Christen smiles and nods, proud of herself, before she fully turns around to tend to the waiting customer. </p>
<hr/><p>As Christen approaches Tobin’s table today, Tobin jerks up a little and grabs her sketchbook off the table. </p><p>Just as Christen places it down, making sure to angle it right, Tobin is already trying to hand Christen her sketchbook, already opened to the colorful page. Christen can’t help but smile a little at Tobin’s enthusiasm as she takes the book. It’s a sketch of two women on a park bench, watching the sunset. Christen thinks it must be abstract or a heat-map-infrared-type of drawing because the colors used were not what she would expect to fill these lines. </p><p>But what does she know about art? “It’s nice. I like it. The use of color… It’s interesting.”</p><p>Tobin nods, “Yeah. It’s the colors of the rainbow actually.” Tobin pulls the sketchbook still in Christen’s hand a little lower to where they could both see it so she can point to some of them. </p><p>“I’m taking this elective poetry class and the assignment was to write a poem about ourselves, kind of like a self-reflection-portrait-study-thingy-thing, something about...” Tobin waves her hand around. </p><p>Christen just stares at her, thinking how cute she looks as she rambles on about art? Poetry? Something. She realizes that she has no idea what Tobin is saying so she finally focuses.</p><p>“... And he was like, ‘art doesn’t have words,’” Tobin scrunches her face to imitate whoever she was talking about. “So I just said, ‘Dude, just watch. A picture is like a thousand words’ or whatever they say. And when I showed up to class with this, he totally got it.”</p><p>Tobin stands next to Christen as she lifts the notebook higher to really look at it, “See, this is how I see myself. Not now, obviously but like, if I were to describe myself, how I would be or what I would want, it’s this. And I know, the seven colors of the rainbow are so cliche and gay but hey, it is what it is, you know?”</p><p>Christen just turns her head towards Tobin and nods, “Yeah, I get it.” She looks back down at the picture to really look at the colors and to count and see if there were really seven of them. </p><p>“What about you? What would your picture look like?”</p><p>Christen pops her head up, “Uh. I guess something similar, maybe some kids running around. I don’t know. I’m not too good with the art stuff.”</p><p>Tobin shrugs as she looks at her, “You should give yourself some more credit. Art isn’t really about being good, it’s just connecting with it, whatever it looks like. And actually, your latte is what inspired me. The seven just stuck with me all day. And I was going to make this all black and white and I realized, that doesn’t really describe me, you know? But this,” Tobin looks back to the picture, “might be a little on the nose, but it’s me.”</p><p>Christen is still staring at Tobin as she nods.</p><p>Tobin turns her head back to Christen, “What colors would you use?”</p><p>Christen’s eyebrows raise in surprise as she blushes, “Hmm?”</p><p>“To describe yourself.”</p><p>“Oh. Uh… Prob-probably the same colors.” Christen nods mindlessly as she whispers as an add-on, “to describe myself.”</p><p>Tobin just smiles a little wider at her, as if she just realized something.</p><p>Christen begins to smile back before the machine that rings up Uber Eats and DoorDash orders starts spitting out receipts.</p><p>They both jerk their heads towards the counter, watching receipt after receipt quickly print out until there are four hanging down the counter, still attached to one another by the tiniest sliver of uncut paper on the left corner of each order. Christen sighs, “I better get back to work. This was a really nice drawing. Thank you for sharing it with me.” Christen hands back the sketchbook. </p><p>“Of course, you were kind of the inspiration after all.”</p><p>Christen laughs, “Just for the colors.”</p><p>“Well, the colors make up the whole picture, really.”</p><p>Christen rolls her eyes before she turns around to go start the orders.</p><p>Tobin laughs to herself before she finally looks back to her latte and sees another new design sitting on top of it, an 8.</p>
<hr/><p>The next day, Tobin has another finished page in her sketchbook to show Christen. This time it was the coffee shop. But when she looked closer, Christen could see that the shading done on the building were actually smaller drawings embedded in. She could make out the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, the Sydney Opera House, Stonehenge, the Golden Gate Bridge and some other monuments. </p><p>“Again, another inspiration from you. My latte yesterday. I think it was supposed to be an eight, but I kind of flipped it and thought about infinity you know? And like, opportunity.”</p><p>Christen tilts her head curiously, looking at Tobin to continue. </p><p>“There’s just so many places in the world that have such great history and meaning behind them. But sometimes, it doesn’t have to be so…” Tobin shakes her head and waves her hand, trying to find the right word, “Monumental. Like, any other place could have just as much meaning to someone. It’s really just about how the place makes you feel. Like this coffee shop. There are so many other places we could both be, but we’re here.”</p><p>Confusion starts to etch on Christen’s face, so Tobin tries to nervously explain, “Like, you could be working at another coffee shop or somewhere else, or even in another state but somehow you’re here, right now. And I, well for a while, I didn’t even think I wanted to go to college, but somehow I did and now I’m here, too.”</p><p>Tobin winces because she doesn’t think she’s making much sense so she tries again, waving her hand over the sketch, “We could literally be at any of these great places right now, but we’re not.” Tobin curls her hand until just her pointer finger is out and directs it at the door of the coffee shop, “We’re here, which… I think is pretty great and has some meaning.”</p><p>Christen follows Tobin’s finger and points out her own right next to it, almost touching it, “Here.” She looks up at Tobin, who’s smile grows a little bigger. </p><p>Tobin nods and hopes she doesn’t mess this up, “And since we’re both here, I was wonderi—”</p><p>The door crashes open as a woman in a business suit walks in, clearly on her phone, and looks around, zeroing in on Christen as she sees her apron.</p><p>Clearly in a bad mood and frustrated, she huffs, “Hi, can I use your phone please?”</p><p>Christen looks at Tobin, who just shrugs, and looks back. The woman eyed her expectantly. </p><p>Christen points slowly to the phone that she’s holding to her right ear, “You’re already on the phone.”</p><p>The woman closes her eyes and takes a breath before opening them and sighs, “Yes, my car broke down and I’m on hold with Triple A right now. But I also need to call my office and tell them I’m not coming in today and call my husband to bring the kids' lunches because I left them on the counter, and…” she takes a pause to breathe in and out deeply, “Can I just your phone?” She pleads, “Please”</p><p>Christen scrunches her face in worry, “Oh no, I’m so sorry.” She walks and gestures the woman towards the counter, “Of course you can use the phone. Over here.”</p><p>Tobin watches them walk away. She looks back at the sketch in her hand and just sighs as drops down in her seat and plops her sketchbook next to her latte.</p><p>She finally brings her attention to her latte sitting there, smiling when she sees a 3.</p>
<hr/><p>This time, Tobin’s drawing is more of a pre-sketch or brainstorm. There’s a lumpy shape, not quite an oval, yet not quite a circle either. In it are just random words. Christen just thinks it’s abstract. Of course, Christen really just labels anything that she doesn’t understand as ‘abstract.’</p><p>She sits across from Tobin as Tobin starts, “I was thinking about things that come in threes and to me, it kind of represents time. Phases of time come in threes.”</p><p>Christen takes a look back at the sketchbook between them as Tobin points each of them out, randomly placed in the shape that’s drawn.</p><p>“There’s past, present, future. Birth, life, and death. Oh, and beginning, middle, and end.”</p><p>Tobin goes quiet so Christen looks up to Tobin studying the page, biting the inside of her lip. Christen wants her to know she’s listening so she nods politely, “That makes sense.”</p><p>“Yeah, but time is weird too. I didn’t draw any hands or really place the words in any order because there’s really no timeline, just…” Tobin looks back up at Christen, who’s been staring at her the whole time, “Time.”</p><p>Tobin continues to stare at Christen, “Like who says that the middle has to be when you’re fifty? You’re just assuming the end is when you’re a hundred. But then again, how do you know if you’re even going to make it to a hundred. Your middle could be right now.”</p><p>Christen giggles, “That’s kind of morbid.” Tobin chuckles with her, “But I think I get what you mean.”</p><p>“How do you know how much time you really have? I mean right now, we could be using this time to do anything. I mean, right now, you and me, we could be—”</p><p>Tobin is cut off from the beeping sound of a big white truck right outside the coffee shop window, which Christen immediately recognizes.</p><p>She groans, and Tobin snaps her head back to see what’s wrong. Christen just stands and huffs out, “I hate when they park right out front. Now he’s gonna come in the front door instead of the back door.”</p><p>She realizes that none of that means anything to Tobin, “Sorry, we just got our shipment of coffee beans and this is the delivery guy. I’ve gotta go. If I don’t catch you on your way out, see you tomorrow?”</p><p>Tobin huffs out a laugh, “I’ll be here.”</p><p>As Tobin sips her latte, she starts thinking about the 4 that was on her latte earlier.</p>
<hr/><p>Christen turns the book clockwise and then counterclockwise, changing the direction of the sketch to see if she can make sense of it as Tobin watches her, amused. Tobin lets her look at it for a little bit as she blows on her latte, noting the 6 perfectly formed on it. </p><p>Christen now has her head tilted, as if that is more effective then turning the paper before she speaks, “There’s a word hidden in here somewhere, right? Like some of these lines and arrows connect and I’m supposed to see a word? Like those graffiti pictures.” </p><p>Tobin laughs, and just silently shakes her head. </p><p>Christen sighs and puts the sketchbook on the table, softly nudging it back towards Tobin, “I told you, I’m not really good at the art thing. All I see are arrows all bunched together.”</p><p>Tobin pushes the sketchbook back towards her, “That’s because they are just arrows.”</p><p>Christen looks back to the drawing, “Wait, I got it right?”</p><p>Tobin laughs more heartily this time. When she calms down, she lets Christen in on the meaning, “Four,” she looks at Christen pointedly, to make sure Christen knows that she’s referencing yesterday’s latte art, “made me think of North, South, East, West.”</p><p>Something clicks in Christen’s head and she thinks she understands, “Four directions.” Tobin nods. “So that’s why the arrows.”</p><p>“Exactly. But, they’re not really just straight up, down, left, right. Even though there are four directions, that doesn’t mean you can’t make any spontaneous turns along the way. In fact, it’s more fun if you do. You never know where something is going to take you.”</p><p>Christen smiles softly, “You never know where a spontaneous turn might take you.”</p><p>And Christen just wants to forget her whole plan and ask Tobin out now. <em>Be spontaneous.</em></p><p>“I was thinking—”</p><p>“Listen—”</p><p>They both start at the same time, but stop and laugh when they realize the other is talking. </p><p>All of a sudden, a woman comes through the door in a rush, making them both jump. </p><p>The woman scans the shop and finds Christen, “Christen, hey. Ali said something about checking the inventory reports? I’ve got about 20 minutes before my next class so I thought I’d do it now so I didn’t have to come in later.”</p><p>Christen stands up suddenly, “Yeah, they’re back here. I’ll show you.”</p><p>Tobin watches as the two women disappear into the backroom.</p><p>By the time Christen gets back, Tobin is already gone. </p><p>
  <em> Not today, I guess. I better go practice my 2’s. </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Tobin’s drawing is so detailed that Christen feels like she’s in a casino if she brings the sketchbook close enough to her face and just forgets about anything in her peripherals. </p><p>Christen lowers the book with an excited smile. Tobin raises her eyebrows, daring her to guess the meaning of her sketch today.</p><p>Christen confidently says, “Six, dice.” Tobin nods, “Dice, casino.” Tobin chuckles and nods again. Christen holds her hands out, palms up, “Boom, done.” She brings her hands down to her lap and waits for Tobin to tell her she’s right.</p><p>“To be successful at a casino, you have to be really lucky. And 6 is actually considered a lucky number, or so I’ve heard. Although, really, the probability of getting any of the numbers on a dice is the same so if 6 is lucky, then they’re all lucky,” Tobin realizes she’s rambling so she just ends with, “So yeah, 6 made me think of dice and casinos and getting lucky.”</p><p>They both blush as they realize what Tobin just said. But before they could address it, they heard a cup shatter at the other table.</p><p>Christen and Tobin both jump up and rush over to the elderly man who’s just sitting with his hands out, about to bend over to pick up some of the shards.</p><p>Christen stops him and helps him sit back in his chair, “Hey Bo, easy. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it.”</p><p>She sees Tobin starting to pick up the bigger pieces, “Oh hey, you don’t need to do that. Let me get a broom.”</p><p>Christen brings a broom as well as a new cup of coffee for Bo. Tobin helps Bo to his new table as Christen starts cleaning up.</p><p>Bo shakes his head, “You know, I thought I’d treat myself this morning because I finally got around to organizing all my old records in the basement. Just my luck, huh?” Tobin and Christen look at each other at the mention of ‘luck’ as Bo apologizes and gestures towards the mess, “Anyway, I’m really sorry about all that, sweetie.”</p><p>Christen is still looking at Tobin when she responds, “It’s alright, Bo.”</p>
<hr/><p>This has got to be the fanciest 1 that Tobin has ever seen, which is saying something. And even more impressive is that it’s done in the form of steamed milk skillfully poured and laid in coffee.</p><p>Tobin puts her cup down as she hears Christen finish up her conversation across from her and clicks to hang up the phone, “Sorry, our credit card machines are down and they still can’t figure it out.”</p><p>Tobin waves her off, “No worries.”</p><p>Christen looks down at the drawing today. It’s simple. Too simple that Christen is trying to find a deeper meaning in it, because nothing Tobin has drawn is just simple. And she’s right.</p><p>Tobin watches Christen, because she knew this would happen. Today’s drawing is simple because she spent more time working on what she wanted to say and how to explain the drawing than putting her pens to paper last night.</p><p>“It’s not much,” Christen looks up to meet Tobin’s eyes, “But it’s actually a lot. Yin and Yang. Duality. How opposites attract. Or how two things can be complementary, interconnected. Light and dark. Hot and cold. The good and the bad. You can’t have the positive without the negative, but really, it’s worth it. Like a partnership. They say good things come in twos.”</p><p>Christen interrupts then, “Who says that?”</p><p>Tobin smirks and shrugs, “They. People. Balance between two people can be so beautiful, don’t you think?”</p><p>Christen bites her lip before she answers, “I guess it could be beautiful with the right person.”</p><p>Tobin decides to go for it and leans forward over the table, “What if the right person—” but the phone on the table rings loudly, startling both of them.</p><p>Tobin quickly retreats back and thinks a look of disappointment flashes across Christen’s face before she says, “Sorry, it’s the credit card guys, I really have to take this.”</p><p>Tobin just gives her a tightlipped smile and nods in understanding. </p><p>Christen gets up to take the rest of the phone call near the counter.</p>
<hr/><p>Christen doesn’t know what to do for today. She’s given Tobin all her digits, so to speak, and if Tobin hasn’t figured it out yet, then she’ll just have to think of something else. Or maybe just actually ask her out and ‘not play nerdy little math games’ as Ali so fondly put it. <em> It’s just numbers. They’re not even doing any math.  </em></p><p>But surely, Tobin will figure it out. She’s an artist. This is kind of like art. There’s a deeper meaning that can be found, right? Maybe she’ll figure it out. Or maybe she won’t and this was a stupid plan after all. Just a week, wasted on stupid milk numbers in lattes.</p><p>Well, Christen wouldn’t exactly call it a waste. She’s actually enjoyed her time with Tobin and her interpretations of all the numbers. <em> Who knew numbers could mean so much? </em>Tobin must think she’s crazy or something. Who does numbers in latte art? People do hearts, and flowers, and cute animals, and all Christen did was a bunch of numbers. So stupid.</p><p>Before Christen can chastise herself any longer while standing in the coffee shop all by herself, Tobin shows up.</p><p>Tobin stops once the door shuts behind her and just stands there, staring at Christen while Christen stares back. Tobin opens her mouth to say something, but abruptly closes it and just looks over to her table, signaling to Christen that she’s going to head over there. Christen understands and goes to make her latte.</p><p>
  <em> That was weird, right? What if she figured it out and isn’t interested. Maybe she came to tell me she’s uncomfortable and is probably going to find another coffee shop to go to now. Ugh. What did I do? I should have just kept making leaves.  </em>
</p><p>Christen looks down at the cup in front of her. A perfect leaf in the cup. Without even really paying attention to what she was doing, her leaf turns out perfect through her moment of panicked thoughts. <em> Well, here goes, I guess. </em></p><p>Christen prepares to be disappointed as she walks towards Tobin. Tobin looks nervous as she sits and waits for Christen to come over, knee bouncing up and down. Her sketchbook isn’t even out yet. <em> Oh no. She’s definitely not ever coming back, is she? </em></p><p>Tobin is staring down at the empty table and doesn’t notice Christen until she’s placing her latte in front of her. </p><p>Christen doesn’t really know what to do so she just says, “Here you go,” and is about to walk away.</p><p>Tobin grabs her arm, “Wait. Do you have time to sit today?”</p><p>Christen looks down at Tobin’s hand on her arm and then back up to Tobin’s face which has a nervous smile, “Oh. Yeah, of course.” Christen goes to sit down across from Tobin in her usual seat. </p><p>Tobin finally digs through her bag and pulls out some document protectors. She starts pulling the papers out while placing the empty document protectors on the table. As they come down, she notices post-its on the document protectors that have numbers on them. Her numbers, but in some random order. </p><p>She counts all seven of them as they fall to the table, 3, 6, 7, 4, 2, 1, and 8. <em> Yup, my number is somewhere in there. </em></p><p>Christen sighs quietly to herself while she settles in her seat, ready to hear what Tobin has to say about the weird numbers. </p><p>Tobin pushes the document protectors to the side of the table as she lays out all her sketches and drawings from this past week.</p><p>“So, I’ve had a lot of fun with these numbers this week,” <em> Here we go </em>. Christen waits for the ‘But…’ Instead Tobin continues with, “And that’s all thanks to you.”</p><p>Christen looks up, surprised, “Me?”</p><p>Tobin grins and nods, “Yeah. If you didn’t want to try something new and do all the numbers in my lattes, I wouldn’t have really thought about numbers like this. And I definitely wouldn’t have come up with any of these.” Tobin scans her hand over the various pages. “But I realized, none of these numbers really exist without a good foundation. And yesterday’s number…” Tobin shuffles the papers around to find the almost blank page except for a 1 and a question mark on it, “One.”</p><p>Christen looks at the paper and back to Tobin, not really sure where she’s going with this. </p><p>Tobin continues, “One is the creator. Without one, there’s no foundation for the other numbers, they wouldn’t exist. How powerful is that? Imagine being like the number one. Just having the strength and confidence to create and carry all the numbers after it and what they mean?”</p><p>
  <em> Confidence and strength. </em>
</p><p>Tobin finds the Yin and Yang sketch, “Balance.” <em> Partnership, </em> Christen remembers.</p><p>The weird clock page, “Time, defined or not.” <em> There is no real timeline, just time wasted or not. </em></p><p>The arrows, “Spontaneity.” <em> You never know where a turn might take you. </em></p><p>The casino, “Luck.” Christen just smirks, remembering Tobin’s freudian slip.</p><p>Tobin skips past her self-portrait piece and tries to bury it, instead grabbing the coffee shop sketch, “Opportunity.” <em> They could be anywhere else right now.  </em></p><p>“If 1 wasn’t so confident and strong, none of these would really make any sense.” <em> Confident. Be confident. Just do it. Tobin is still here so obviously she doesn’t think you’re too weird. Just do it. </em></p><p>“Tobin, there’s something—”</p><p>Tobin puts a finger up, “Actually, I have one more.” She grabs her bag off the ground to grab her sketchbook.</p><p>Christen looks to her left and sees the document protectors that have the post-its with the numbers on them.</p><p>And she goes for it. As she goes through them and rips the post-its off the document protectors and places them on the table, she powers through with as much confidence as her nerves will allow, “Actually, I put the numbers on your latte because I felt like… You know, there was something… Uh… Something there… And was actually trying to see if.. If you maybe wanted to go out sometime.”</p><p>Christen finally looks up to see a confused Tobin, holding her sketchbook against her chest, looking down at the numbers she arranged in a straight line: 7834621.</p><p>Suddenly, Tobin’s eyes widen, “Oh.” She looks up to Christen with the same widened eyes and repeats, “Oh.”</p><p><em> That is not the reaction I was looking for </em>.</p><p>Christen tries to backtrack and starts to pick the post-its up, “Sorry, it was stupid. I just thought—”</p><p>Tobin’s free hand lands on top of Christen’s, flattening it out on the table, “No!”</p><p>Christen shakes her head, laughing to herself, as she retracts her hand from under Tobin’s, “Okay.” Christen starts to get up, “I’m just gonna…”</p><p>Tobin realizes what she said and tries to explain herself, “No wait, I didn’t mean no, like no. I meant stop.” Christen is still awkwardly hovering above the seat of her chair from when she started to get up, not sure whether to leave or sit back down at this point until Tobin answers her question, “Please stay.”</p><p>Christen lowers herself in her seat hesitantly. </p><p>Tobin takes a deep breath and is about to start when she starts laughing to herself. As she thinks back over the week, she laughs a little harder. </p><p><em> Of course this is funny. </em> Christen is not laughing, not even a little bit. She is annoyed. She waits until Tobin is done and looks at her. She glares at Tobin as if to say, <em> are you done laughing at me now? </em></p><p>Tobin quickly recognizes that Christen is upset and clears her throat, “Sorry, I didn’t… I wasn’t laughing at you.” </p><p>Christen raises her eyebrow pointedly.</p><p>“I swear.” Tobin gestures towards the post-its, “This was actually pretty cute.”</p><p>Christen’s expression softens in surprise, “Cute?”</p><p>Tobin looks back up to her and gives her a little smile, “Yeah.” She rubs the back of her neck, “I mean, <em> I </em> thought it was cute. I’m an idiot and I didn’t get it at first, but now I do and yeah. It’s cute.”</p><p>Tobin is blushing and Christen thinks she got it all wrong. <em> Maybe there is something there. </em></p><p>And Tobin decides to go for it too, “It’s definitely cuter than what I was going to do.”</p><p>Christen leans forward at this curiously, “What do you mean, ‘what you were going to do?’”</p><p>Tobin looks up hesitantly, “Promise you won’t laugh.”</p><p>Christen squints her eyes in confusion.</p><p>Tobin finally hands over her sketchbook to her.</p><p>Christen takes the book and looks at the drawing on the page. </p><p>It’s a sketch of them, sitting at the table. And Tobin is handing Christen her sketchbook, just like they did a moment ago. Christen squints at the drawing and sees that in the sketchbook of the drawing is the same scene only smaller as if the scene replays over and over again in smaller and smaller sketchbooks. Christen looks up at Tobin, “How meta,” before she goes back to studying the drawing, trying to find some kind of meaning in it. </p><p>Christen finally notices the thought and talk bubbles above Tobin’s head in the drawing. The thought bubble reads, “Be a #1.” The talk bubble reads, “I know you have a thing for numbers, but I was wondering how you felt about my number?”</p><p>Christen laughs lightly, causing Tobin to pout, “Come on, you said you wouldn’t laugh.”</p><p>Christen looks up at Tobin apologetically, “This is cute.”</p><p>They hold their gaze for a few seconds before Tobin speaks up first, “I’m sorry I didn’t catch on to all this. I just thought you were trying new designs and just really obsessed with numbers.”</p><p>They take a moment to laugh before a group of college students walk in. Half of them go to the counter, and the other half start pushing tables together, obviously coming in for a long study session. </p><p>Before Christen could apologize for having to get back to work, Tobin asks, “What time do you get out of class today? Do you maybe wanna meet up for dinner or something?”</p><p>Christen smiles, “I’d like that. We could meet at Carol’s. I get out at 6.”</p><p>Tobin grins, “Perfect, I love Carol’s. I get out a little earlier. I’ll wait for you. I mean, you’re always waiting on me so I guess it’s only fair.”</p><p>Christen stands up as the students at the counter ring the bell for her, “See you later, Tobin.” She holds up the page in her hand, “Can I keep this?”</p><p>“Please, it’s yours.”</p><p>As Christen goes to the counter, Tobin looks back at all the pages strewn on the table and then finally to the post-its. She laughs to herself and she enters the number into her phone, unaware that Christe has been sneaking looks at her the whole time, smiling to herself like an idiot. </p><p>When Tobin walks to the door to head to her classes, Christen catches her eye above the coffee machine, and gives her a big smile. Tobin grins back and makes the phone signal with her hand, putting it to her ear. Christen just laughs and rolls her eyes. She mouths, “See you later” to Tobin as she walks out the door.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Had an idea and kind of ran with it. Anyone else like numbers? Glad I could finish it and get it out for Tobin Twosday :P. </p><p>Thank you so much for reading! </p><p>More number facts: https://mysticalnumbers.com/category/number-meaning-fun-facts/</p></blockquote></div></div>
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